A Peek Into Piddles World

CNY 2012 14th day

2012-02-09T13:53:00.010+08:00

I can't believe chinese new year has 15 days but I only get to meet SM almost the end of the celebration! Worse still, I haven't get to see my god-daughter Lauren!
But she has not been feeling well & Carmen has also caught the flu bug. And now, CNY's already over.. :(
I will still keep the angpow for her, in my cute Hello Kitty pink pow!

05th Feb, Sun

SM & family were at her mum's place at Eunos so we dropped by after J's class.
So nice to have a big balcony where you can have a lot of greenery.
It was bright & sunny that day as you can see. I love natural lighting.

The highlight of the visit of course was to see Little Yixin. She's taking a nap when we reached but woke up a while later, as if she knows that we're there? Haa.. Maybe we're too noisy..
She has put on some more weight since the last time I saw her. Babies this age are cute!

Love this pix cos she's looking right at my camera. :)

Lovely shade of pink.

YX's wearing her cuzzie's clothes. But she still looks girly in boy's clothes though..

Cute little fist.
I've been trying to take a picture but she kept moving around. So the helper helped to hold it still for me.

Looking very angmo here. Her bridge is higher than JZ's.. Hee..

Another smile. Yeah!

J fiddling with the baby toys. He can't find any cars though..

*hearts**

Roy having a game with Jason, SM's dad & aunty.

While the adults were busy at their mj, the kids kept themselves entertained behind. Air-con mah!
Nothing much for me to do so I took pix of the dices.. Wish I can play too..

SM & YX.

SM's 8yr old niece helped to take pix for us, not bad! :D

Really crowded that day, what with 1 granny, 11 adults, 5 maids, 4 kids & 3 babies.
Hee...

JZ has grown up so much that he looks like a 5 year old. :)

Bye Yoyo, for now.. (1st Feb 2012)

2012-02-06T14:42:00.009+08:00

Wanyu is fondly known to some of us as Yoyo, Dizzy & Yuyu. Only those who are lovable will be given a lot of nicknames. Lol..

Piddles has known Yoyo for 6 years straight, coming to the 7th year now. She loves her. This is a known fact to those who's in her circle.

Piddles first saw her at her new job in their office at the west wing.. A young girl with a lot of drive, willing to learn attitude & a level of maturity, destined for the greater things in her life. She's hip & unique in her own ways, can dressed up very pro & corporate one day, and then dressed like she's going for school the next. Everyday is a fashion show for us. She's la la, sometimes drama (in a cute way) & slightly Dizzy on some days.. And so over the years, Piddles has grown very fond of her. She is someone very good to love & to be doted on.

Piddles still remembered the day she left us for biz development, we had a small breakfast gathering at T2. We gave her a bouquet filled with flowers & bears, it was lovely. And when it was time for her to leave, and us back to office.. we took our turns to give her a hug.. Piddles suddenly burst into tears, which startled the rest a little. She's so sad.. :(

Then Yoyo left for country food but all these while, they still maintained close contact with each other. She took the time to update Piddles about her life, her family and of coz with Uncle T.. Which Piddles was glad that they had finally come together as a couple. Then one of the happiest day in Piddle's life was that she was involved in Yoyo & Uncle Ts' wedding, having the honour to take pictures of intimate details during their big day. She was that happy for them.

She came back to our dept as Manager a month after her wedding, and had been of great help to us. Of cos Piddles must take good care of her, showering her with TLC & lots of AXBD in order to "fatten" her up.. :P But alas, good things don't always last, and Yoyo had to give up everything here in SIN so that she can join Uncle T in Manchester. Which of course, Piddles thinks it's the right thing to do cos Uncle T is now her hubby and that's all that matters now. No matter what others might think or say.

Her last breakfast on her last day of work.
Actually her last day was on 27th Jan but she was that responsible about her work that she came back to office on 30th-31st. Leaving her no time to even pack her bags & run last minute errands.

I made it a point to send her off at T3 on wednesday night, 1st Feb as I had a gift for her.
Didn't expect to see a bunch of people sending her off as well. They are like superstars for the day.

I guess both of them were super tired what with all the mad rush of packing, getting last min foodstuff etc but they made a great effort to spend some time for all of us there.

Me trying to squeeze everybody into the iphone screen but failed miserably.
Sorry Uncle T! -_-III

Last pix together before she fly off to faraway land.

Roy has also grow fond of her through me over the years, treating her like a little sister.

The dreaded time came when they have to leave for the gates. And all the take cares, handshakes & hugs started. I waited for my turn, choosing to give her my hug the last. I thought I should be able to handle it better this time round.. And also, everybody was around and it's really embarrassing if I'm the only one who weep.

But when I embraced her, my tears just rolled down uncontrollably. Memories flashed across my eyes, and the thought that she will be thousands of miles away from us this time, just brought another round of hysterical outburst.. I think it's just me, I suck at keeping my emotions under control. And her friends who've known her for more than 20 years are taking it in their strides..

I will miss seeing her in the mornings, sharing things with her, sharing our breakfast/lunch/kopi, sharing our frustrations, complaints & bitchiness.. And most of all, sharing our thoughts together.

Distance will make the heart grows fonder. Till we meet again, Yoyo..
For now, please take care of yourself & let Uncle T takes care of you too. xoxoxo.

CNY 2012 6th to 7th day

2012-02-03T15:19:00.017+08:00

Now that I have a kid, it's visiting, visiting & more visiting.. I missed those days where I can make use of the cny holidays to make a overseas trip.. *dream**

28th Jan, Sat (am)

My youngest grandaunt is treating us to lunch at Westlake restaurant just below her block at
Queens Road.
The only way to make J look into the camera is to let him see himself in the display.
Enjoyable lunch with all the elders around. The kids were let loose & running amok outside the restaurant.

After lunch, we proceeded upstairs to grandaunt's place. A lot of quirky finds and old stuff.

J's the only boy amongst the sea of female cousins & aunties!
He's hiding in one corner playing with the doll house, no choice!

28th Jan, Sat (pm)

After that we went home to drop J off & get ready for part 2 at SHock's place. Asked my mom to wrap up the ngoh hiangs cos I'm lazy. Lol..

All wrapped with tender loving care.. :)

Roy & I reached around 6pm but the guys were already there playing MJ since 1130.

Mathavan came with a big hot claypot collected from Crystal Jade. Made him pose for me.

Getting ready for the luo hei..

It looked like there're more salmon than the vegs!?!

As I'm busy taking pixs, Roy offered to help me fry the ngoh hiangs.

Sizzling hot.

A plate full of golden brown ngoh hiangs with a lot of sweat & hardwork behind. Lol..
So proud of Roy!

Everybody squeezing around the mj table for a chance to luo..

I think all of us were hungry that day, we all snatched at the food!
SHock using a spatula to scoop up the remains, and wondering should he leave some for Yoyo & Thomas later.. No need lah, cannot ask them to eat the scraps right??!! @_@

Meat meat meat!!!

Gathering the rest to pen their thoughts for Yoyo. I can only catch them that day during the gathering.

Poor Lindy twisted her ankle on the way home during the start of cny. Daylight robbery to visit the doctor during first 2 days of cny!

It might seemed like there's not much varieties but believe me, we had problems finishing up all the food!

SHock is very hands on with kids & babies as he has been babysitting his godson while he was on holiday in Taipei. Hee..

I think that's Leng trying to feed Evan some of our food, lol..

SHock eyeing longingly at Evan's squeaky giraffe, haha!

Everybody wants to carry baby Evan, he's clearly the centre of attraction that day.

David doesn't keep a goatee..

So David let Evan have a feel of Hara's beard, hahahaha!

Daniel's tiramisu was another sellout that night.

Evan's infamous pout.
Babies have funny expressions, through different stages of their lives.

One of the loves of my life. :)

Sexy bum!

I set up the tripod to house the camera & took some test shots while gathering everybody for the yearly group shot. Still cannot get the perfect shot.. -_-III

Asked them to say "Huat ahh", ended up covering up some faces..

So we soften our actions and viola! The perfect cute shot! :D

Jerome + Nicole = Evan

I stopped everybody for a while to give Yoyo our present & card. I said "on behalf of everybody, we wish you stay youthful always & please take good care of your skin!"..
Then I heard Daniel laughing away hysterically, saying "what, you ask her to stay useful??"
*faint**

Opening up the card filled with love & well wishes..

We filled up everything, no empty spaces in between. I'm so proud of my assignment.

And that, my dear Yoyo is the thumbprint of Jboy. The bigger one belongs to Roy who wanted to leave his mark too. Lol..

29th Jan, Sun

We went to attend Cyan's 2nd birthday at NSRCC after J's class on sunday.
Roy asking the boys to stick out their tongues but J refused to do it. I think his tongue must be short, that's why cannot talk properly as well. -_-

Roy using the frontview camera on his iphone, that's why everybody can look into the screen & smiling so happily.

It's fun but the resolution's not so good.

Cyan love cars, one cake & one agar agar.

The grandsons & future granddaughter-in-law? Lol..

CNY 2012 1st to 4th day

2012-01-27T09:11:00.032+08:00

Actually we started much earlier on the saturday before the chinese new year. We had the reunion dinner for my family at my place. This is a long post!

21st Jan, Sat

This claypot was saved for me during cny 2011 last year at SHock's place. Proved to be very useful as it can cooked enough food for the family.

Homemade Yong Tau Foo with the softest fillings of chicken & fish. Yums!

My mom's ngoh hiang are the best by my standard, the rest can vouch for them too!

We decided not to have steamboat cos that's a lazy dinner style, plus I'll be having that for the reunion with my inlaw the next day too.
Braised duck & curry are a must for us. I love overnight duck cos the meat turned so soft & full of flavour. *drool**

Cyan's fascinated with Thomas & Friends as well. Uncle T, all the kids love you! :)

This picture was funny. J was like in awe with Cyan's expression.

Playing together in peace & harmony is what I wish for the boys.

Gathering everybody for a family shot. I was testing the flash light by the way.

Getting the kids to focus was just impossible!

Ok, a fairly decent shot.

22st Jan, Sun

I'm in the mood of photographing J the next day. At least he's looking at me. :)

My baby.
Love this shot.

J with his Peppa Pig.

She is just lovable here.

I even love her curly tail!

When the wind blows, J loves to go underneath the curtain.. Even though it's damn dirty!

The flowing curtain will make him very happy..

Later that evening, we had steamboat at father-in-law's place.

Singing chinese new year songs on Ye ye's karaoke. J insisted on choosing the golden mike, leaving the old grey one for cousin Sarah. She actually knows how to sing some of them, and she's only 8 years old.

After which he managed to snatch over & conquered the 2 mikes. With drool all over them.. Yikes!

His mini stage. He thinks he's a superstar ah?

J's 2nd uncle's angry birds collection. Luckily J's not into them as well..

23th Jan, Mon

Woke up bright & early on new year's day. And he insisted Roy assemble the train set for him to play.

Wishing Gong gong & Ma ma Happy New Year & Gongxi Fa Cai.

I asked him to kiss them but he kissed the angpows instead. $_$

Jboy rich liaozz..

Oranges for Daddy next.

Kiss kiss.. *I love Daddy**

Stay healthy & obedient. Lol..

Getting all dressed up & ready to go out for visiting.

Not forgetting to take picture with his beloved Dennis & Yee yee.. :)

Visiting my grandaunt. These 2 are her granddaughters, so I guess J & Cyan will have to call them aunties.

J can pose better in front of the camera nowadays but Cyan is more into his balls.. Heh..

Later that day, we went over to visit Roy's granny. I think J's already getting tired, can't even sit up straight for a pic with her.

Had dinner at Vivo with Roy's brothers. J normally allows anybody to hold his hand. I haven't let him try with strangers though..

24th Jan, Tue

J has been harping on going to the zoo for the longest time. So we finally decided to make a trip there. We haven't been there for so many years, mainly becoz it's always crowded & smell of poop.

The kids get a dragon headband which I'm surprised J's willing to wear. Normally he'll just rip anything that's on his head like hats, caps etc.. Maybe cos it's from the zoo..

Dennis as usual showered him with undivided attention. I can take a break for a while.. :)

One miserable white tiger.

Two miserable elephants.

Aiyah, I didn't bother to take pictures of the animals cos it's super crowded with tourists, what with all the ah tiongs & ah nehs.. The whole place stinked of BO and shit. @_@

I let Roy handle him most of the time cos I'm the photographer of the day.

Running round & round the pond. We're too tired to go around catching him so we just stood one side & let him loose for a while..

Stopping for a while to catch his breath & admire the lilies. Lilies are lovely. :)

Scoot over Rabbits. Dragons are coming your way!

In Q for the boat ride.

Sharing his dragon headband with Yee yee..

He's just so active & kept climbing up & down or in any tight/narrow corners..

Feeling happy in the boat ride down the river bank.

Party of 4 + 1/2. I'm glad the guys can help me to babysit J whenever we went out. My sis & I can sit back and relax for a while..

The guide showing us the actual size of an ostrich egg. Almost as big as J's head!

Roy complained that I always make him do these kinda pretend poses.. Fun mah.. :D

25th Jan, Wed

1st day of work after cny. Ernest from IT dept sent over a angpow for J, sooo sweet of him!

26th Jan, Thu

Mom dressed J up cos we're bringing him along for a dinner treat by William.

I whatsapp a pic of him to Lily to show her that J's wearing the osh kosh that she bought for him from LA. She exclaimed,"Awww he looks sooo handsome!! What a big boy!! Heee I got tears in my eyes liow.."

Love her for loving J. :)

We had dinner at this szechuan restaurant at 112 Katong.

What a huge spread! And William still worried that it's not enough.. @_@

Did you noticed J's wearing shorts here?
This boy ahh.. He was watching Mr Bean in the restaurant & laughing sooo loudly that he choked & coughed & threw up a portion of his dinner!
What a mess! Lucky thing we had already finished the dinner. But I had to gobble up my mango sago dessert with my eyes closed..

Back at home all cleaned up & smelling good. Insisted on wearing the dragon headband again. Maybe he wants to go zoo again. Don't make me go and smell poop again!

Time out with Jared

2012-01-26T00:00:00.011+08:00

Ok, managed to upload overdue pictures of what's happening in Jan, before CNY.

So my folks went on a cruise on the Royal Caribbean sponsored by my brother.
Damn, why he don't sponsor us also, since he's so rich?? =_=
I had to take a week's leave (my precious..!) while Roy took 3 days, in which 3 out of the 5 days J had to skip school as he's down with cough.

And my mom's first question when she returned was how I take care of J until he fell sick one.. @_@

Going out shopping during a weekday was pure heaven as there're absolutely no crowds & no smelly BOs. J's allowed to roam around and not fight with other kids for the toys..

After dropping J off at preschool, Roy & I had some free time to ourselves so we decided to go to my old neighbourhood area in Bedok wet market hawker centre for some comfort food. Not bad, they even had the cny decors up..

Normally I prefer black carrot cake but this white carrot cake did not fail me. The auntie fried the eggs to perfect crispiness while the inside was still soft & yummy.

Now this was the highlight of our lunch, kway chap! I like to pour all the chilli inside my bowl of kway and slurp up all the soup. Shiokness!

And to finish things up, we had you char kway dipped in kopi. Typical heartlanders indeed..

Brought J along to airport cos I need to settle some outstanding work.
He's fascinated with the glass lift at the viewing gallery.

Even when he goes to school, he must bring his ezlink card along. When will he wear off the card mann? He keeps losing some along the way, I'm running out of farecards!

Haha! J so cute with his big LP pants..

J's super duper thrilled when he first saw Peppa Pig, and even checked out her little bear too.

Yoyo tasked Uncle T with a mission to hunt for her when he was in UK.
Mission accomplished with the most adorable Peppa pig with hugs & kisses from Uncle T.. :)

Peppa pig kissing J. J kissing Peppa pig and her cup.

We used this swaddle to wrap J up when he was just a tiny baby (below), now he using it like he's a cult leader or something.. My house is terribly messy if you noticed.. All his stuff!

So adorable when he's a baby.. Those were the good 'o days..

We've managed to train him to say "Gongxi Fa Chai" once the mandarin oranges are placed in his hands.

Folding his hands behind and inspecting the decorations at home.

While it was really tiring taking care of him around the clock, it really made Roy & I felt so much closer to J. We were inseparable. While he can drive us up the wall most of the time, he can be a joker as well too. We love him more than ever!

Chinese New Year at Chinatown, Jan 2012

2012-01-16T15:41:00.014+08:00

I'm seriously falling behind in my postings.. While I've posted these pictures on the actual date stated, I actually just started thinking what to write after 2 weeks later, on the 3rd day of CNY! I've been terribly busy, plus I took a week off to babysit J full time cos my folks went for a 5 days cruise.. =_=

More on that in the next post.. Hopefully soon!

I took time for Yong to accompany her to chinatown on 3rd Jan, before she flies back to Seattle. She misses the cny atmosphere very much..

Lightings along chinatown are not really a long stretch but they are striking enough to make you stop and admire the majestic display of the dragons..

It's the year of Dragon again.. After a 12 year wait..

It's well 2 weeks before the actual new year but everybody rushed there early to beat the weekend crowd.

Red, red..

And more red.. Luckily I quite like the colour red.. :P

There are 3 "dragons" here.. One on top, one Piddles & another one coming along this July.. :D

There's actually a Tintin shop in Chinatown!
Must bring my sis here..

Tintin has be a childhood comic for many of us.. I love him!

Too bad I don't have big vases at home if not, I'll love to bring home one of these..

These will make a good table display..
On 2nd thought, maybe not.. I don't wanna invite mozzies mann..

I'm trying to take pic of the red melon seeds cos they're my mom's favourite but they're not commonly available.. I guess these black ones will do..

From the back, I looked kinda big size next to Yong..
Even my ass looked bigger.. *Sad**
But from the front, it's another different story.. Lol..

Most of the sweets are free for sampling.. You just have to tell them what you wanna try & they'll open for you..

Not for these jelly or puddings though..

These mini oranges actually taste sweeter than the original ones..

Everything comes in mini sizes, including the pumpkins..
They are so widely used in occasions like Chinese new year, Halloween.. etc.. :P

The red lanterns are so alluring..

The dried foodstuff.
Yong cannot stand the smell.. I thought they're ok, except maybe the salted fish.. Haha!

Other than the usual pineapple lanterns, they now come in other varieties..

Orchids are more for display purposes rather than any auspicious meaning..

Even the cactus are not spared.. They have red dots on them.. -_-

The pussy willows always will have a special meaning to me.. at least..
They are so soft, tiny & nice to touch.. *wink**

I know Yong's very very happy that I went with her to chinatown, as you can see from her wide grin. :)

Missing you very much. And I hope you can finally come back to spend CNY with us next year.. It's payback time! :D

It's the start of the new year again..

2012-01-05T18:02:00.009+08:00

We started the year by counting down at home.. Lol..

Nothing fanciful.. But Roy & I did watch Lord of the Rings DVDs together.. LOTR trilogy are one of our favourite movies of all times.. And most importantly, we hardly can watch a movie throughout at home at all.. :)

Some random iphone pics over the first week of new year..

Kindle

Roy surprised me with a very belated xmas gift.. It wasn't a intended gift lah, he saw his brother had a kindle so he asked him how he got it. He even got it wrapped up, he just really wanted to see my super surprised face.. =_=

Mom @ Work

Yong was going back to Seattle after a 3 week's break so I asked my mom to bake her a kueh lapis. She used to do all her baking at my dad's shop but since they're staying at my place to look after J last year, all the baking stuff were moved back to my place.. What a crowd..

Separating the yolks from the white, a lot of work involved.

Mom's not baking to sell this year, think she's tired.. Also have to take care of my sister. So she's baking just enough for family & close relatives..
I know I should've taken over the reins but baking lapis & pineapple tarts is a lot of work involved. Maybe I should asked my maid to come back to help me.

Leng, Daniel, Lindy, Gerri & Foo in HK

Leng whatsapp me picture of the gang counting down to the new year in hong kong. I wished I can join them but I can't of course. Seeing them get together & enjoying themselves is good enough for me. :)

Settling down for a game of mj after the countdown.. Best..

Playing Tai-di at train station in shenzhen.

They can even dozed off while standing in the cabin, highest technique mann..

Close up on Foo sleeping standing up.. Lol..

Chinatown 2012

I hardly step into chinatown, specially during CNY period cos it's so crowded. But this time I've made an exception for Yong cos she wanted to take some pictures of the festive mood to bring back to US.

I think I've captured a fairly good picture with my crappy iphone.. :)
More pics in my SD card, will need to go her folks place to get it.

Lotso

Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear (Lotso for short) is a character from Toy Story 3. He played this abandoned stuff toy that turned bad. Disney came up with the real stuff Lotso & he actually smell of strawberry! My favourite fruit scent, including strawberry shortcake.

My col Chris managed to get him back from Disney Park in LA, and I was overjoyed. But J had stolen him from me.. Haa..

He can't seemed to get go of Lotso at first.. Now he goes to bed with his stinky bear, pillow, dalmatian, purple elephant & now Lotso. So greedy!

It's end of the year again..

2012-01-01T14:09:00.003+08:00

It's the last working friday of the month so we decided to meet up for lunch. Went to newly opened Ramen Champion Restaurant at T3. OB likes the ramen there.. Actually we all do..

They might be not the same as those in Japan but good enough.. :P

Setting Leng's camera on self-timer precariously on the ledge. Just don't trust the helpers to do it. Anyway, it's all self-service.. -_-

Another shot using self-timer. Good eh..? :)
Anyway, most of us were dressed in blue as there's a small tea party celebration in the office.

Diana's the organiser and she's very funny & sporting. We always like to "arrow" newcomers to do these sorts of stuff. Haha!

Lotsa fingerfood & tidbits.

Biyi & Clara from Special Projects dept also joined us. Biyi revealed her tail this time! She has been using her tail as a hairband most of of time, no wonder most of us didn't noticed at all.
Looks funky.

Even though Xmas was already over, we still made an effort to buy each other a gift. Most of us know who our secret santa is anyway, so funny.

Candies from boss, who's just came back from his london/paris vacation.

Guess who's hands are on Diana's boobies?
Someone always say, more than a handful? or mouthful? is a waste.

All waiting for someone to start the ball rolling. Boss of course.

Yoyo & Piddles. We love blue!

Leng took a pic of my P hankie which I've tucked under my ribbon. :)
I've been having a bad flu for the previous week & followed by cough. Doc said I had slight bronchitis & will need antibiotics to get rid of the phlegm in the lungs.
Keep having coughing fits in office so better cover my mouth, with such a cute hankie somemore.

Everybody always look posed for the 1st picture.

Happy New Year Peeps!

******************************************

2011 had been quite a rough year for me. Not so much for work but things that had happened at home.

The worst blow for us, was when we first heard that my sis was diagnosed with breast cancer in June. She is currently undergoing chemo weekly, afterwhich will be radiotherapy. I really hope she will be strong & can conquer the sickness.

My baby J, has always been a slow talker, He's not talking in sentences & would rather shout & point to get what he wants. All along we thought.. n mind, he's just slow, sooner or later will pick up. But when you see kids around his age are talking speeding bullets, you tend to get a bit worried. We brought him to a specialist who diagnosed J as having speech delay. Another blow for us. But OB was right when he said, be thankful that this is something that can be cured over in time. And that he's not in any physical danger or serious illness. So right now, we've enrolled him to attend speech therapy once a week. Hope it works! *keep fingers really crossed**

My sister-in-law got pregnant and the whole family except my brother came to stay at my place in Nov and it's total chaos.. And she lost her 2nd baby end of her 1st trimester in Dec.

Really eventful year. At least for me.

May year 2012 be a better year for all, good health, good fortune & good luck. It has to be, it's my year leh! :P

Handyman Roy

2011-12-30T10:37:00.005+08:00

William bought sound box system for his 1 year old home and he had no idea how to fix them up so had to call Roy for help. Good thing we're not staying too far away..

His place is full of CDs/DVDs/Blu Rays/Stuffy Toys and etc..
J kept himself very busy with the stuffies..

William has this cabinet with an opening in the centre, where he used it to display his stuff. This time round is Christmas ornaments. Next month will be CNY stuff bah.. Another house visit soon for the angpows!

He's a avid supporter of Daiso. Seriously, they have all sort of stuff for home..
Maybe I should get some for the chinese new year, just for the fun of it..

I think this star's from Ikea.

J was totally engrossed in those stuffies.. "Bring them home, boy!"

I guessed he must've gotten bored & demanded a piggyback ride while Roy's pouring over the instruction menu.

Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la la la la la...

High Tea @ Intercontinental Hotel

2011-12-29T12:34:00.019+08:00

This hotel holds a special place in my heart. Roy & I love this hotel, we used to book their rooms for sanity breaks, and also when Yong was leaving for Seattle for studies.

So here we are again, this time round is a reunion get-together.
I think they've always use the same xmas tree but different ornaments.

Everything is giant size..

Love the old shophouse feel..

I had lychee flavoured black tea, I love anything lychee..

Here's our 4 tier food.

Roy & Yong almost hidden behind the tiers.. :)
Roy got to know Yong through me over the years, and I'm glad that they can get along so well.. Roy is almost like a big brother to her liao..

Overall I still prefer english high-tea that allows us to ask for refills, cos there're some where it's very nice but cannot ask for more again. I want my Goodwood Park high-tea!

Roy & I.

So far the best scones I've tasted are the ones from the Copenhagen, that's situated at Takashimaya.

I love their wooden staircase so got Roy to take photog of us there.

BFF.

I remembered I took a pic of the 3 of us during Christmas in year 2004. Lemme go dig for it..
We looked happy?

After tea, we dropped by Shimei's place to see her baby, Yixin.
Big baby versus little baby.

Yong loves babies too. I think she will make a good mom next time too. :)

YX is dressed in blue cos all her older cousins are boys & the clothes are recycled. I think blue looks good on her, doesn't make her look like a boy though..

Glad that she has put on more weight cos she was tiny when she first arrived.

Overall, the outing was meaningful with catching up with 2 of my bestest buddies in the whole world. I love them both dearly.

Hi Jared!

2011-12-28T11:44:00.008+08:00

Have not been loading pictures of J recently cos really nothing much to talk about.. We didn't really go to any place interesting.. You can say we are boring folks, we're so lazy!

However, some of you peeps have always doted on J, and are asking how is he so here's some of his more recent pictures, all taken using iphone. Lazy to bring out my camera lah.. :P

Shopping at Parkway Parade. I've been coming here since I was a kid and it still holds a place in my heart and now I'm bringing J along as well.
Level 2 is more like the kids' level, with a lot of stuff for the kids. Kiddy rides as well.
J loves Thomas & Friends. What about Uncle Thomas? Lol..

Barney's not his favourite but because his favourite colour is purple, I guess Barney is acceptable lah..

We all watched Sesame Street when we're young, so I make it a point that J does too.
He likes to stick his hand into their mouths if you've noticed.. =_=

J is a fan of Peppa Pig, a character with a big head & skinny legs created in UK.
Yoyo got me the cup when she's in manchester, and J got so excited over it. He even hold onto the cup when he's sleeping.. =_=

I know he's a bit too old to play with alphabet puzzles but he still loves his ABCs..

This year, I'm too tired to do a xmas party. I know I should but I just can't find the mood to do one. So no party means no pressies. Well, J still received some though..
I feel so bad I didn't prepare pressies for JZ & YX. N mind, I will pack them a bigger angpow next month.. Lol..

This was from us, the biggest box!

Recently he likes to play hide & seek. Sometimes he will hide one corner & keep quiet. Refused to answer even when we called him.

Purple elephant from William, which has become J's sleeptime companions, besides his stinky bear, dalmatian, pillow etc..

Present from Cyan's mother.

Mothercare tees from Carmen.

We're not sure if he likes drums so we bought a extremely cheapo drumset from metro sale in expo. Turned out he actually enjoyed making noise out from them. But he has broken one drum & the mini chair that came with it. Who wants to sponsor a better set? Any takers? :D

The complete set. He will sing along when he strummed.. In such a slow rhythm that it really sounds like funeral music.. =_=

Old navy sleeper that I asked Yong to bring back for me. This boy likes to flip up his shirt & expose his tummy when he sleeps, so no choice I have to source for one piece pjs for him.

Early morning on boxing day J wanted to play his thomas train set. The one below was his birthday pressie from Carmen last year. That set off his interest in trains & tracks.

Roy asking a kiss from J, for behaving so well & keeping his hands away from the train. :)

10 Scotts

2011-12-25T11:07:00.006+08:00

My very good buddy, Yong is back in town for 3 weeks. I've missed her so much!
She's been busy settling down and spending time with her family but we've managed to make some time for each other to catch up. So as promised, I've brought her out for high-tea.

My favourite english afternoon tea is at Goodwood Park but the timings that day wasn't very accommodating so I sourced for another place. Decided to try out 10 Scotts at Grand Hyatt. I really wanted english tea style where they have scones & sandwiches available, easier for Yong as she is vegetarian. Plus, we are not entirely big eaters.. :P

10 Scotts is located on the lobby level and the set up somewhat resembles a big study room. We had the whole row of sofas to ourselves, with a nice view of the cascading waterfall in the background. What's tea without tea and tier of finger food. Of course there were other food available at the counters like dim sum, pastries, fruits etc. But that later..

Close up. I had to eat quite a number of the meaty stuff as Yong doesn't eat them.. Phew..!

Jars of kaya, cream & strawberry jam.

I know we looked kinda orange-gy but I din bother to edit the photos..
I've known Yong for more than 10 years now, really took a lot of effort to remain close to each other specially she's been in Seattle for so long and we both have our own family and all but we did.. :)

Yong was at first dubious about the scones as she said those in the states were hard & plain but I assured her the ones here will be different.
They were warm & soft & sweet with plum raisins, so nice!

Yong had a lot of strawberries & blueberries while I tried out their sweet delights..

I'm not a big fan of raspberries partly because they had so much of seeds! But I just had to take a closeup of this as it looked so cute & colourful.

I presumed this strawberry jam is homemade as it just taste so fresh & nice!
Forgot to ask if they are selling them or not..

The jam went very very well with the scones, we had a lot of them. I supposed it's considered healthy? :)

Overall, it's a nice experience, ambiance & food. Most importantly, it's the company that mattered most of course. We actually talked from 2pm all the way to 5pm, with intervals of fruits & pastries. Made our money most worth it.

Little Vietnam in Joo Chiat

2011-12-16T10:19:00.004+08:00

Ben's back in town so Yoyo arranged for a get together, have dinner somewhere to catch up.

It's a small group, just 6 of us. Easier to get a table & everybody can hear everybody. :)

OB wanted to try this authentic vietnam eatery near to a sleazy karaoke pub in joo chiat. This place was packed with their locals & most of the women were dressed in short short skirts.

The rest all had beer while I had my usual papaya milk.. Still working hard to increase boob size. :)

This seemed like a must try food. The ingredients was fresh.. But I'm not a big fan of mint. :P

All listening intently at what OB was saying..

Deep fried quails. I was commenting not sure if the dark quails will turn up in my photo, Yoyo then stuck out her thumb to give me some contrast. Lolololl..

Now this soup was the highlight. It tasted like tom yam soup but it's more fragrance & sourish. Fish was extremely tender & went very well with kang kong & mee hoon. Yoyo & I had a few servings of the soup, wondering what made the soup taste so good?
It's not until OB was scooping & looking for scraps that he found pieces of lard inside. Oh I see..
Now I feel guilty drinking so much soup.. @_@

Satisfied after dinner. We looked like some of "them" standing outside by the roadside.
Ben & David looked extremely funny in this picture, hahahahahaaa!

Tokyo, Nov 2011 (Part 2)

2011-12-09T16:41:00.040+08:00

Finally...!! Pics of part 2 in Japan. I thought I'll never get them up!

So after landing in Narita airport, we took the airport limo to shinjuku. The trip to & fro airport cost us a freaking 6000yen per pax, that is S$100. But they included a 2 day pass on metro rail lah.. Still, it's expensive cos I'm paying for 2... -_-

My 1st picture was a bunch of toothpicks.. Haa..
This was taken when waiting impatiently for my katsu don.. Faster serve me, I'm famished!!!

Ahhh, my pork cutlet rice... Come to mommy!!! Yummzzz~

Went to settle bus tickets to go to Nagano for the next day.

William said after the big quake in March, they decided to save electricity by switching off the neon lights early. They're really concerned about the environment and very pro recycling.. Wish they can spread some of their culture over to us.. :P

Cath Kidston! But they're so god damn ex.. See only..

So, we booked the bus to go Nagano at 0750hrs on 21st Nov, Monday. William set the alarm at 0600hrs but forgot that Japan is 1 hour ahead of us. So ended up he woke up at 0700hrs and he happily went to shower and we were still in dreamland. After shower, he glanced at the clock and it showed 0720 already! Argghh! We rushed like mad. Only managed to brush teeth, changed clothes, packed up to checkout. Ran to the bus station like 3 mad people.. Mann, my lungs felt like bursting... I nearly die!!

The bus really move out on time at 0750hrs mann, I sat down like for half-hour straight with my eyes closed. Just a 15min run was enough to kill me.. I'm weak! =_=

So we were on our way to the Japanese Alps!
Along the way, there was a pit-stop for us to use the washrooms and to get some brekkie.
I was still tired so I stayed on the coach while they went to get some food.

Digging in his burger..

I really like their coaches.. Always so well equipped & places to put everything, including plastic bags to put your rubbish in.

Seeing more mountains gradually instead of buildings.. :)

Town within the mountains.. We've reached!

We wanted to see the Snow Monkeys right away, when it's still bright. Don't waste time!

Our guide was a Kiwi whose wife's a Japanese. He was explaining to us while we crossed this orange bridge that the great Hayao Miyazaki, who created Spirited Away got his inspiration from when he was in Nagano.

Here you can see a similar bridge created in the movie.

At the foot of the mountain. Roy so happy before the climb.. -_-

It was so cold that day that I had to have my hood up, to protect my ears from the freeze.

It was quite steep & wet at certain parts.
I was thinking if I were to bring J along, I will have to hold on his hand real tight if not, he sure run around & might just roll down the slope..!

See how steep?!! But maybe the tree trunks will break the fall.. Haa..~

More walking.. Sigh..

After a 30mins walk, we reached some sort of clearing with some residences.
I was asking Roy with the flowing of river so noisy how does the residents sleep? I guess they're already used to the noise.

Looking out for monkeys.. Don't see them yet..

See monkeys also need a ticket. 500yen is about $8.25..
Maybe they need money to buy food for the monkeys..

Ok, first monkey we saw that blocked us from crossing the bridge.. :P

Hot spring for the snow monkeys!

Aren't they having a good time?
We can't jump in to enjoy the onsen as the water is too hot for humans. Lucky buggers!

Ok, a picture with them.
Actually we took a lot of pictures but don't wanna bore you with too many pics.. wait you envy.. Haa...!

Catching ticks for friend.

Kiss your food before eating them. Haa...!

Rosy face after getting out from the hot spring.

*Not for young children's viewing**

Bye bye fur balls!

I must ask Yoyo what this board is about, she's a geo whizz.

It's gotten so cold that we rushed indoors for warmth. And the sudden temperature change fogged up my lens.

But it's a nice effect right?

Foliage

What a scenic view!

Paranomic view.

At the foot of the mountain was this old resting place that serve some refreshments for tired & hungry visitors like us. It looks old but it's completely clean.

Pic of us with the help of my sony's timer. :)

William warming his head in front of the heater fan.

The ramen was nothing to rave about.. But because I was so hungry & I wanted something hot, it actually taste quite nice somehow..

Roy's cold soba on a cold afternoon.

Back at the ryokan. Recept served us drinks while we waited for the room to be ready.
Each of these origamis were made from a single piece of paper, how cool is that?

View of the snow capped mountains from the lobby window.

Welcome snacks in the room.

This is a typical Japanese style room. At first we were wondering where are our beds?

We found the futons in the wardrobe. So we have to make our own beds? *scratch head*
Then the manager came in to brief us on the dos & don'ts and told us our beds will be ready after dinner.

Here's me dressed in the yukata. This is the attire for both dinner & bath time.

Full yukata attire.
Weather was so cold that it felt comfy in the layers of clothing..

Dinner's looking magnificient.

If you see mushrooms growing out from the stalk/cork/whatever, mean it must be very very fresh!

Just grill them lightly over the fire with a pinch of salt until you see droplets of water forming, you're good to go.
And seriously.. they're one of the nicest mushrooms I've ever eaten in my whole life! It's that good!

So after a scrumptious dinner, we decided to take a walk outside the ryokan cos we figured the public bath will be full of people. Our guide told us just a min's walk away there's a foot onsen so we decided to check it out.

It was so cold outside that we had to make a dash for it. The onsen is just by the roadside & anybody who passes by can just take off their shoes & dip their feet in. We're not worried about dirty or germs as the water was so hot it might just kill off anything inside. Also, the water just keep streaming out and not stagnant.

The water was so hot that we had to constantly dip our feet in & out.

Roy's foot was so red, compare to mine..

When we trooped back to our room, we're pleased to find the futons all laid out nicely for us.. :D

Their public bath was an eye-opener for us. I got the opportunity to see a lot of naked oba-chans (aunties) walking around. I quickly washed myself up and jumped into the water and hid there and kept on looking at their old boobs. They don't even give a hoot at my orgling.. Haa..

Had a good rest in our comfy futons. Breakfast was equally good with Roy choosing japanese while we chose western.

Mine looked a lot less compared to Roy's.. :P

Cracking an egg onto the plate together with chopped onions & butter.

I like it not too burnt, medium cooked.. :P

This was actually potato soup, the potatoes plucked straight out from their garden. Really lovely!

Nothing was wasted. I even packed all the buns, even though I din get to eat them.. Haa..

Details written in Japanese at our door. What does it say?

The quilt was so comfy that I just had to dive inside for another nap. I wanna pack one up to bring home!

Our kiwi guide beckoning to the train master to take a picture with us..

What's a picture of the train station without it's train master?? :D

Roy bought 2 of these pears, they were so crunchy & juicy!

Cheap 100yen coffee doesn't taste good though..

They even put blankies on the bench so that it won't be so cold for our butts. So nice...

Their local train.

A trip to yoshinoya is a must.

Curry rice too, with a lot of pickles..

Roy and I went to Ueno park on a sunny wednesday morning. This ojisan is so talented.

Really lovely..

I think I blended in quite well in terms of colour. :P

The water looks clear enough to drink! But I think it's for washing hands..

Love the sun rays..

Their ravens are seriously big, like cats!

Peace!

Exactly what I would have put, not forgetting world peace of course.. Heh..

I really love the lighting that afternoon so I made Roy pose for me.

Another self-held photog.

Glorious autumn.

Kids playing baseball. They were quite good!

Street performance.

As it's a public holiday (Labour Thanksgiving Day), the park, zoo & shrines were very crowded.
So nice to walk amongst the locals with the cold weather and all..

I wanted to try Papa Bread, the sweet potato flavour.

Roy said in this picture the bread looked like sai.. @#$%^^&!

Half a dozen of Krispy Kreame Original Glazed Donuts are a must buy must eat item there.

I love that what they describe in their pictures is exactly what you'll get when your food arrive!

It was super crowded that night, and Roy & I was the only couple to eat there. The rest all were strangers to one another. I reckon all the couples or groups will go to those better restaurants and not these kinda cheapo ones that we go to.. Hahaaaa!

I normally don't take raw spring onions but the way they marinated it with garlic or something just made it so tasty!
Went so well with the bbq beef!

Roy's order was always bigger/more expensive than mine..

Testing out the micro shots..

These little cakes cost a freaking S$51.. each! @_@

Taking a coffee break after dinner. There're so many coffee joints around shinjuku, very convenient.

Really a lot of singles around. And it's on a Thursday night at 10.30pm. Don't they go home?
We were fascinated with the bookshelf-like curtain, wonder if they have it here?

Coffee was ok but I still prefer our own kopi.

On the plane back home. Overall, the trip was good with some minor hiccups. Not easy to find good travelling partners but William's one of them! Wonder when will be our next trip together?

But right now, I'm just happy to be back home with J, my mom told me he would carry my picture around and stood at the door shouting for me.. Makes me feel so bad.. Haaa!

So likely this will be my last trip together with Roy, next time really have to bring J along liao.

Taipei, Nov 2011 (Part 1)

2011-12-06T16:12:00.033+08:00

Finally managed to get some pictures up.. As reminded by peeps. Let them do the talking!

On a bright wednesday morning, we checked in at the counter with a breeze. Don't have to wait or standby at all, that's the best.
Decided to have kopi & toast at Killiney T3 if not we'll be kopi-less for the next 10 days.. Roy is one happy man thinking of all the good food that he can enjoy in tpe/tyo.

A groupy pic.
This was the 3rd time we travelled with William to Japan, and he's good company to travel with..

William booked this hotel or apartment in the hip ximengding area called Gosleep Hotel. At first, we couldn't locate where is this place, cos the building looked so dodgy.
Anyway, the so called hotel only consists of 21 rooms on the 9th floor of the office building!
Good right?? Location is excellent by the way.. With movie theatres, eateries, shopping & subway all within walking distance.

They have this balcony to house the water heater, and the ceiling is terribly low. Made me looked tall by the way.

A small kitchen area. We only managed to use the kettle & washing machine.

Uncle walking with his great dane.

And a shiba inu (japanese dog) barking at the great dane from the top floor of a building.

Grandpa bringing grandson out for a stroll. That's nice..

Our first meal there. Minced pork on rice/noodle, meatball soup & tofu with century egg. The rice & soup was out of this world.. Speechless, don't know how else to describe just how yummy..

Goose! Different method of cooking from the hongkies.. I think it's boiled? I'm not sure but it sure taste nice!

Comfort food on a rainy day.

At shilin, crowded and bright.

For a change, Roy & William were interested in the products & asked the promoter a lot of questions.

Dogs are welcome.

It's well into the night, close to elevenish.. But still full of activities.

Their beancurd is dosed with peanuts and stuff.

Deep fried chicken chop as big as Roy's face.

Two of my favourite combination.

Catching Immortal 3D there. It cost us $13, a dollar cheaper than here.

I saw Breaking Dawn showing but have to tahan until coming back here to watching with William & Lily.. Arghhh!

Queuing up for another snack.

What a big drumstick.

Graffiti all over the dessert shop.

They are super generous with the mango. White bitter gourd with honey. Super bitter, yucks!
But good for lowering high blood which is good for Roy.

Happy Birthday, Uncle!

Ximengting is like Shibuya in Tokyo, Mongkok in Hong Kong, a hip place to be at.

Sunshine after a shower.
I love this Red House cos I happened to chance upon a shop that sells vintage style dresses.

A treat by William's friend, whose name is actually Lin Zhiling. Lol..

Tabaoing street food back to their place.

After that we went back to their place to take a look at their little girl.

This got to be one of the nicest Taiwanese "tempura" I've ever tasted.

Their red tea, 1 litre per pack. *faint**

Zhiling's little girl, around 6 months.

Look at those chubby thighs! Feel like biting them..

What a cutie. Little girls are so much more interesting to play, dress up with.

This toy is actually made to resemble a nipple. -_-

What a ingenious idea!

Party of 3. They are so friendly and hospitable.

After that we went to Party World. Karaoke is one of taiwaneses' favourite past-time.

Roy singing his heart out.

Their choices of mandarin pop songs are staggering, and high tech. And each room comes with attached bathroom, so that we don't have to leave the room at all.. Haa..
We sang from 11pm until 5am! Dinno our stamina were so good.. @_@

You know some hotels we stay in that breakfast is provided? For this gosleep hotel, Mac breakfast was delivered to our door early at 8am. Haa..

It's actually nice, cos they serve pork. Lol..

Their famous toilet-theme restuarant. We were actually searching high & low for it but actually it's just a stone throw away from the hotel.. =_=

Wish this is allowed here in sin..

CDs and DVDs are relatively cheaper there so we actually bought quite a bit.
Cats are welcome here.

So are dogs. Actually they're the CD store's house pets. Heh..

Staircase outside the store, nice..

Loosely translated: Recording in process, please smile.

The sunday class that J is attending, they have a branch in Taipei too. Forgot which is main & which is the branch liao..

Some famous temple that we went to..

What's this?

Oh, sugar container..

Some old famous cafe joint that we went to, for a break & to rest our feet.

I ordered Taiwan coffee, tasted pretty much like ordinary coffee though..

Love this building. Very 60s or 70s..

Can you imagine the bill for all these cost less than S$10??

Taipei 101 at night.

Eric Moo in concert. It's actually a preaching session, cos he's a devoted Christian.

The meat simply melt in your mouth. And the rice.. I can eat this everyday mann..

Roy's taiwanese col brought us out to Yilan, to some cultural village.

This place smelled strongly of wood. Must be very old..

Taking a break on some old chair too..

Cute animal heads made out of flour.

That's why I never ask others to take picture of us. This was the result.. -_-

This was what I took, with nice bubbles in the background. Too bad I can't chase the people behind.

All kids love bubbles..

Went to a fishing port nearby for some seafood.

I can't imagine myself living there though, I mean.. What to do everyday leh?

At some famous seafood restaurant with some rich history..

Their varieties of seafood is amazingly cheap.

Love this broth.

Their version of "flower crab".

Went for a stroll nearby after the heavy lunch, another treat from the taiwanese frens.

There's a rule where the sailors are not allowed to come onboard so they can only watch us wistfully from where they are.

Took a long ride to Jiufen old town. Started to rain cats & dogs.

No, nothing's wrong with my lens or camera. It's really that misty & cold that day.

Despite the rain, the old town's still crowded with people.

Their version of popiah, with icecream & peanut shavings inside. Nice!

Queuing up for some famous kueh whether rain or shine.
This was the last night in Taipei, afterwhich we took a flight to Tokyo on sunday morning.

Onboard EVA Air. I loveeeeeee their buns! I mentioned to William and he casually asked the attendant if I could have another. "Certainly since the lady likes it.." she said. Awww, I'm bowled over by their friendliness.

Next up, post on Tokyo & Nagano. I've yet to upload the pictures though.. Arghh!

Soon, soon..

2011-12-06T16:10:00.001+08:00

Yay yay.. Uploading pictures now.. And gotta think what to write also.. Wait ahh..

Trouble Troubles..

2011-12-01T00:00:00.002+08:00

Sorry for the hiatus peeps.. I know I've seriously lacked behind in the postings, after all I've been to Taipei to Tokyo and back. But I'm in no mood at all to gather my thoughts and share with you here.. A lot has happened recently at home and ironically, I managed to find some solace only when I'm at work. Work has actually taken off some mental loads from me. Right now, what worries me the most is the well-being of my Jared. There are some matters at hand that I have to settle first. When I'm more composed, maybe I blog about it. Will gather the trip pictures soonest.
*Sigh**

Chill out at David's

2011-11-09T16:48:00.010+08:00

Have not had a gathering with the gang for some time so this time, we decided to have dinner at David's place. His apartment is at Telok Kurau, my kind of place.. Top floor with stairway to lead to the master bedroom and a open balcony.

Nice view, can see what your neighbours are doing, and you can even see MBS in the background.

I can take pictures of others but apparently not myself though.. :P

Coming down from the staircase, you can see the kitchen infront. A cosy little place.

The rest chilling out on the couch while I roamed around taking pics..

I like the chairs, kinda retro-looking..

This was the impromptu mj room. Nice sofa bed!

I think these chairs belong to SHock's. He brought a lot of stuff over from his place, like pots, food & even mj set. Lol..

Yoyo wasted no time in changing into her chillout clothes, cos she crushing overnight.

SHock brought a lot of food over, even attempted to make char siew! Cutting up the homemade char siew delicately. He can really make a very good house-husband, better than us girls! Shame on us!

Roast duck from SHock's downstairs coffeeshop.

Frying the sliced luncheon meat, special request from us..

OB & Yoyo in some serious talk.. DND (Do not disturb).. heh..

Almost of the food on the table bought by SHock & Leng.. Curry made by David. We supposed to leave a piece of luncheon meat for Yoyo one.. :P

Big black snapper caught by Yoyo! But prepared, ganished & steamed to perfection by SHock.
A perfect catch leh!

The guys wasted no time in a game once Jacq arrived cos I refused to play.. Hehh..
Saving up for my trip. :P

While the rest of us lounged around..

Hara dozing off.. Must be too comfortable.. With the booze & aircon on..

The elders..

The original makan gang. Sourly missing Nicole & Foo.

The boys..

And the girls.. We were outnumbered..

So Piddles roped in Roy for support.. While the rest looked on eating sour grapes.. Lol..

Halloween at Hess

2011-10-31T15:18:00.009+08:00

Sunday, 30th Oct

J's teacher asked us to dress him for halloween on sunday cos they will be bringing the children around the neighbourhood for trick or treat.

This boy doesn't like to wear cap or anything other than shirt or pants on him so very difficult to make him wear costume. So we just got a cape, a axe & goodie bag for him to bring along. Watching Mr Bean again..

Playing while waiting for the earlier class to end. I'm too tired so I just watched him went up and down the stage countless times..

Getting the hang of the rhythm of music.

Decorating the place really make it look more interesting & lively & the mood to celebrate.

The principal is dressed up as Bob the builder, so cute.
J touching the blade of his axe to see sharp or not. Haha!

But once he saw us from afar, he insisted on grabbing onto me, making it impossible for me to take pictures. So I forbade Roy to go for his toilet break and made him go & hold J's hand instead.

Making sure I'm still around while making their way downstairs.

We went to Joo Chiat CC next door and Bob the builder made the kids say trick or treat to the staff there.

Korean restaurant staff after that.

Mira the witch watching out for J.
And Bob the builder almost pecah lobang. Too bad I didn't zoom in.

Last stop is at Chess society, the staff adores the kids and gave them a lot of sweets.

Too much for J so he gave me some. Luckily he didn't demand to eat them.

Time for photo session, again J refuseed to let Roy out of his sight so no choice he had to hide behind him. Haa..

Drayden is simply not interested and minding his own business. Kids are funny..

A trip to the Dentist

2011-10-31T11:44:00.010+08:00

Sat, 29th Oct

Had a appointment with doctor to do fillings for J's molar cos there's a hole, and he's not even 4 yet. I think it's my fault for not taking care of his teeth. :(
And this boy still wakes up at night to drink milk. What a baby! Really very tough to stop him from drinking, if not he will scream at the top of his lungs in the middle of the night.. And then maybe the neighbours will call in the police.. -_-

Went to GPA at Parkview for the appointment. They've got a kiddy's room for the kids to play while waiting for the "moment".

Happily watching Hi-5 and insisting on sitting on his own. Still dunno what he's getting himself into.. Heh heh..

Dr Phang showing him which is the bad tooth.

I think I better sit with him, to hold him down mann..

Cried his heart out, face all red & sweaty. It's really not that painful but maybe some uncomfy feeling..
I remembered when I was young, I dreaded going to the dentist cos I can hear all the kids inside screaming so loud, must be damn painful. J's like one of those screaming kids mann..

Still can managed a weak smile after the treatment.

Dr Phang gave him a Nemo sticker to reward him for being a brave boy, heh..~

Roy paying up at the counter. The 2 patient relations managers (big title, haha!) are actually twins! But I can't take picture of them up front though..

Feeling happy & relieved back in the car. Silly boy!

Sony Workshop

2011-10-25T14:32:00.006+08:00

Well, I wanted to learn more & get a better understanding of my machine so I attended a outdoor portraiture photography last sat.

Went to Fort Canning Centre on time at 0830hrs. Shanghainese model with her back facing me and the teacher (Richard) briefing her what to do.

She looked so different with make-up and tight dress on.. We took a lot a lot of pictures but I'm not gonna load everything here in case you get bored. Heh..

I must say it's not easy to think of how to pose.. I'd rather be the woman behind the lens..

A change of clothes, into flaming red.

What long and shapely legs.. Bet she had them shaved..

Richard is a "light" photographer, meaning he needs a lot of lighting props around, whether in the day or night. Those props weigh a ton, and he used a trolley bag to bring them around mann.. So pro..

The rest of the class..

Model was tired from all the standing so she took a breather behind the pillar.. But Richard pointed, "Oei, go stand there..!"
Hahaa!

Richard is a wacky & humorous guy if you can tell from the picture.. He made the session fun & interesting for us. I learnt a lot of tips from him too. Hope I have time for more sessions in future..

Here's looking at you, Baby

2011-10-17T17:13:00.009+08:00

My best buddy Shimei, has finally given birth last sat, 15th October 2011. So happy for her..
And I'm excited to meet her and taken some photographs for them.

Shimei + Jason = Baby (yet to be named)

So happy that she opened her eyes when we were there!

I swear she's looking at me!

Alert look

Looking forward to day 14 where I can do a photo shoot for the family. Stay tuned.

Day Out at Resort World

2011-10-17T14:56:00.020+08:00

Roy's company is sponsoring hotel stay + tickets to universal studios at Resort World over the weekend so we went as a family.
Anyway, ever since the wooing days (back in 1999) when Roy will bring me to Rasa Sentosa & tried to con me, we've not been there since..
So much changes..

We got a room at Hard Rock Hotel. As usual, checking out the place first thing he stepped into the room.

Not forgetting rolling on the bed too.

Just climbing all over the place lah..

I asked Roy to chase him to the toilet so that I can get a picture of the room.

Closeup of Sting on the wall.

Saw the boys checking out the digital weighing scale.

I should get me one of these!
But I think J will break the glass mann..

Kinda retro looking to suit the theme.

Just doing his own business..

Making sure everybody take their shoes off. I know, the carpet can be quite dirty.. -_-

View from our window.

Leaving a message for the chambermaid, lol..

Roy teaching him to hold his pencil the right way while his eyes are roving elsewhere.

Can you imagine it's actually our 1st trip to USS?
Super sunny that day.

J being super tense & serious on the Madagascar ride.

Most of the pics that Roy took on my dslr were blur including this one, so not sure why it turned out clearer in the blog.. Lucky!

Giving J kisses without fail everyday.

Nothing to do while waiting for the carousel ride so asked Roy to take pic of us three.

Looking so stunned on the ride..

Not sure why most of them love french fries & hash browns. Is it cos it's deep fried?

I think he enjoys feeding himself but I don't want him to make a mess of his shirt!

Back at the room for a break, taking some shots.. This is the inside of the lamp.

Self shot.

Love that they have a extra pull out bed beneath the bed. J & I slept there that night cos it's too cold. Should have brought my maid along..

The wardrode is linked to the toilet so J had a fun time walking in & out All The Time!

Attempting to turn his head to face me but failed miserably.

I heard this transformers ride is only available in sin.

We didn't get the chance to take the mummy ride too with J in tow. Too bad..

Shot of the day.

We're all tired & sweaty from the heat, while waiting for the next ride.

Candy trees.

Tired & hungry so we tried out their room service. And it's not cheap, $20 a plate!

After that still hungry so Roy tabaoed curry chicken & laksa from Toastbox, best!

J boy in dreamland.

At the lobby the next morning for breakfast, with the just woke up look.

He caught a cold due to the crappy weather, damn it!

Entertaining himself while I finished up my food.

J pushing his stroller around the room while we started packing up. Boys will be boys, cannot stay still for long..

Finally! Time to check out! Don't think I wanna come again unless it's free, again.

Cyan the Beater

2011-10-12T10:27:00.010+08:00

Cyan and the maid came over to stay over at my place since thursday night until monday as his parents went for a leisure trip in bangkok. Like I said, I decided not to bitch too much here.. just in case.. you know..

Cyan is a big size boy for his age at 20months. Everything about J is smaller than him besides his height & maybe birdie (Hahaa!)

Trying to bear hug J while he cringes away from him. He is damn rough.

J's arm looks like stick next to C's.

I asked J to give him a hug, which is probably not a good idea..

Digging for gold quietly on his own while C is smacking his back.

Really dunno what's with his hairstyle. Damn long & sam sheng & feeling so hot that the maid has to get a rubber band to tie it up. What's up with them?

He loves cars just like most boys do.

Was trying to compare my hand with his. Whose is thicker?

Unlike J who always throw tantrums at us and by rolling on the floor.. When C's angry, he will go around smacking and beating us up. J simply ignored him even when he's being bitten up, he will crouch down and continue his own activity.

What a big tummy.

Anyway, it's really chaotic having 2 boys & 2 maids at home. But when C was around, J became kinda quiet & milder.. Maybe cos he's met his match. Hahaha! But he's not that sort that will bully other kids one, he only bullies the adults. But not me!

But his cousin is obnoxious & rough. He will shove, beat, smack, bite & headbutt J. And the poor boy doesn't even fight back. How should I teach him to do?

J's not the only victim. C will run straight onto us, like a oncoming train pushing us over. I've suffered a bruise on my back rib as a result.

Overall, he's just a little boy who probably doesn't know what he's doing & nobody's teaching him what to do & what not. And I'm his gu gu, so I will also discipline him should he misbehave. Please do not interfere.

Announcement

2011-10-03T16:31:00.002+08:00

Hi Peeps, just to let you I've disabled the privacy setting (again!) for the time being, cos I found out that my Ah Lau has been too busy (or lazy) to log in weekly to see what me or J has been up to!

Ya, anyway I've been complaining less so no need to block anyone lah.. -_-

For my closest peeps, please remember to note down your username & password in case I decided to block again, if I were to sound out my unhappiness.. Too bad blogspot don't have this function of blocking 1 particular post instead. They should!

Totoro

2011-09-30T17:11:00.006+08:00

I've always been a huge fan of Hayao Miyazaki.... For those who don't know him, he's the brilliant creator of animated movies like Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle etc..

Recently OB helped me to get The Borrower Arrietty from hk as it's not available here yet. Their graphics are just so nice & entertaining. A great show! My mum started watching too & so is J. He can literally sit down throughout and watch, even though it's in japanese.

After that, I dug out other collections and played for J my all time favourite, My Neighbour Totoro. The rest is history.

I know everybody loves Totoro but this boy is crazy over it! Getting all excited even from the beginning & dancing away..

J love love love love loves Totoro! My gosh, he can watch over & over and laughs in glee..

See how concentrated he is?

Not just that, he even started to learn how they speak.. in japanese!
When sis switched the audio to english or mandarin, he got bored & walked away to do his own stuff.

Watched again the next day.
And what's that in his hands?

Totoro stuffy of course.
Peeps, if you have any Totoros to spare, you know who you can give to!

Jared's house

2011-09-29T11:07:00.006+08:00

I remembered last time when we were kids, we loved making house using the mattress & blankets.. So yest night, I made one for J too..

He's so excited & squealed in delight when I first put it up. At first he thought it's a slide & sit on it.

Then I said, "Cannot sit, it's a house!".. Guess he understood & immediately crawled into the hole. I put up the blanket to act as a door.

His own personal hole.
Maybe I should make it the naughty corner, everytime he throws tantrums, I put him in this little hole.

Pulling down the blankie, don't wanna be disturbed.. :P

Carmen gave J alphabet stick-ons for xmas last year and I put them up on the wall in the bedroom so that he can read them out every night. He will sing the song & point & point at the letters.

After that, he crawled back into his safe hideout. Goodnight!

AXBD

2011-09-27T12:22:00.006+08:00

It stands for Ai Xing Pian Dang, loosely means breakfast made with love.
Mum always has been into bakery & sorts, and when the mood comes, she will start whipping up something. So this time is Makokeh or "Huat Kueh" in hokkien.

Mum woke up early in the morning today to steam the kuehs. Still warm when I reached the office.

Tiny little colourful buns.. Supposely to go with coconut & raw sugar but well, it taste equally nice without it.

Girls in Black

I gave the girls one each, good stuff must share!
All trying to look adorable with cute poses but I decided to do the opposite. Totally tak-glam & obsence maybe? Hahahahaaa!

Hari Raya Gathering

2011-09-27T10:58:00.011+08:00

Sat, 24th September

It's been the 3rd year that Lily has invited us to her place for a gathering during Hari Raya month. Lily has been showering J with lotsa prezzies for his bd & eve then xmas so I must bring him over to her place to make him thank her in person. :P

Highlight of the day was of course, the Nutella roll! Lol..

J is really a very thick-skinned boy, checking the whole place out.. Including out of the window..

Making himself at home..

And not sure where he dug up the ball from..
Lily's girls were in the bedroom and he kept opening the door to go in, must be cos there's aircon inside.. Maybe the ball's from there too!

And after the older kids took the ball away, he turned to playing with the stones and chicken at the balcony.

Not knowing what to do with both, J started knocking the stone on the chicken! OMG! Don't break it!!!
Lily said it's ok, already cracked and her hubby used tape to tape the tail up, haha!
Dunno why, her fren's boy also likes to knock the the stone & chicken together.
There's a duck & chicken and the boys all chose chicken. Maybe it's a guy's thing.. heh..

This is the room that J kept running into..

K's youngest son, making himself comfy too..

Yoyo & Uncle T totally focused on digging in.. Yumzz..

J is really like a energizer bunny, playing non-stop!

Roy doing the superman stunt for him. I simply don't have that type of energy left..

After Lily helped us to take a family shot, I realised we have not been taking a lot of pictures as a family together. So thanks babe! Nice background too!

Chilling at the living area..

Piddles is quite relieved that most of the adults seemed to like J and willing to help her entertain & play with him. :)

The short fringe gang. :D

Managed to gather half of the groupie together, the rest still digging in all the good food. Haa!

A clip to show just how thick skinned J can be when he wants to play. Even though he's seen Edwin for the first time, he behaves like he's so close to him just cos he can fling him up in the air.. =_=III

Luckily no nightmares that night. Ha... Time to bring him for a roller coaster ride soon!

Just lazy

2011-09-19T11:01:00.009+08:00

Sorry for the hiatus in blogging peeps.. Cos I really got nothing happening to blog about recently!

However, I did attempted to take some miserable pictures on my phone (lousy quality) on J. Here it is..

Have not brought the boys to airport recently for a walk so we went on a sunday.
Love their attire.

Just look at the forlorn expressions of the boys! Ahaaa!

Bro brought Cyan over to my place last friday to play. According to my mum, he can be quite a terror.. Any toys in his hand, he will use it to knock J's head and muttered baby talk under his breath.
And the silly boy will just run away. I should teach him to knock back his head mann. *sly smile**

Last sat, we brought J to dentist at GPA Parkview (the Gothi looking building) at Bugis. This boy has been drinking so much milk, day & night that he has a bad tooth! As if his crap problem is not enough to give us a headache..

Overall, the place is cosy & child friendly. Just need to let J get used to his dentist & the environment. He did put up a fight & lotsa screaming when she tried to pry open his mouth.. I was deaf for a second.. -_-

Went to Roy's dad's place yesterday.
My mum has been chasing the taiwanese series now showing on channel 8 right now, so J knows the song by heart.
Sang like a pro right? Swaying his hips somemore, full of actions!
Grandpa will need to air his mike liao, full of J's drool!

J's first dance on stage (live)

2011-09-06T14:55:00.009+08:00

J has been attending enrichment class at Hess every sunday and he loves it!
And his teacher is super sweet & pretty (maybe that's why he enjoys it?)

We always arrive a wee bit early and J will be keeping himself busy in the playroom with the toys & books. He's totally at ease there, ever since the first day there.

Grabbing a book from the bookshelf. He knows his ABC by heart liao..

All the costumes hanging behind, a lot of role play involved.

Every end of each term, the teachers will arrange for a performance for the kids to show the parents what they have learnt during the past few months, and also to train them not to be shy on stage. I think it's a good idea.
Teacher Tim seated his K1 students & briefing them what to say later on stage.

All the parents and K1 students seated and waiting for the little kids to appear.

All of them were in costume except J. He's supposed to be wearing Piglet costume but he simply refused to put it on! I think cos last week when he's in the costume, it's too hot to bear.. His teacher say one..
And the girls in the class are all bigger size than the boys..
When the singing started, all of them looked at their teacher for cue.

This boy doesn't like to be in the limelight though, he's always at the back. :P
But, his voice is the Loudest! *faint**

Good job!
Hip hip hooray!

K1 is like what, 5 year olds?? And they have to learn how to read out loud liao? Stressed!

This boy not shy one.. When the K1 kids were reading out loud, he can walk up and down the stage. Had to be chased down by Teacher Tim.

This is Teacher Lara, and she's from South Africa. All the kids love her.

I like her too.. Keep looking into her light grey-greenish eyes the whole time.. Paiseh mann!

Here's the clips..

The toddlers were the VIPs, all trooping out slowly. J's holding onto his bag, he thought it's time to go home!

Can hear he has the loudest voice hor.. You can imagine we have to bear with it all the time at home.. @_@

Sony 50mm F1.4

2011-09-02T10:58:00.011+08:00

For those who's not into photography, this might sound gibberish to them.. Heh..
Anyway, I've acquired one of the lens that I've always wanted for a while.. And I'm happy!

Tada!
It's more of a portrait lens, perfect for taking kids!

As usual, J will be my subject just as before. He's super excited about going for a walk with me again, as I've put a curfew during the 7th month.

There're a lot of kids walking back to their school just next my block.
It's Teacher's day so they're back for evening performance for the teachers..

I can never get him to look straight into the camera one.. urgh!

Don't leave home without his ezlink card!

This boy likes to walk ahead infront of us, and occasionally turn back to see if we're still at his back..
Last time, he don't care & will just zoom straight ahead, so we had to play the cat & mouse game.

Such a "fair" boy, lol..
Ahh.. the wonders of my wonderful lens..

Not looking at me again..

Look at his skinny arm..

More pics next time.

Youtube uploads

2011-08-30T14:15:00.003+08:00

Uploaded some clips of J from my phone..

A idol in the making! Lol..!
Not sure if you know the "Xiao Lao Shu" song but it's J's attempt at a chinese rhyme.. He sounds like a angmo talking in mandarin though..
And the microphone's full of drool, yikes! Don't spoil Aunty Carmen's gift to you ok?! :)

Ever since J recovered from the bronchitis, we keep asking him not to jump if not he'll get excited and started coughing again. So instead of jumping now, he swing his hips instead.

At central. Making him say 1,2,3 before clicking the shutter. He likes to walking underneath the lanterns and disturbing others who's trying to take pictures. =_=

Over the weekend

2011-08-29T11:46:00.005+08:00

When peeps ask me how's your weekend? My typical answer would be, same loh.. Bring J to weekend class and spending our time on him. Zzzz..

But last sat, we brought him to paya lebar, at Singpost building. There's a chinese sinseh that my sis went to for consultation after her chemo sessions. To mainly build up her qi and immune system. For J is to see his constipation problem and general well being.

Saturday, 27th Aug

I didn't know normally the whole family is seeing the sinseh, and they're not even sick! It's a long wait mann..

J loves his yee yee & Dennis dearly.

Sunday, 28th Aug

After class we went to bugis & central to shop for a bit. There's a lantern fair on the ground floor and J's super excited, as you can see his cheeky face. His national day mood still lingers and he kept shouting Happy Birthday, Singapore!

Another ndp theme Merlion lantern he wanted to take picture with.

Love you a lot.

My other baby

2011-08-22T11:24:00.010+08:00

I've not had much chance nor time to use my sony, unless I get to go out. Since my mom's complaints about bringing J out too much during the 7th month, since he's a pangtang boy, that's why fell sick blah blah etc.. Don't bring him out, say why we don't bring him out. Brought him out, fell sick say why we go crowded places.. Aiyah, I can never win her. I've found my competitor. -_-

So.. I just took some random pictures for practice.

I've always been a Strawberry Shortcake (SSC) fan since primary school, other than smurfs, my little pony etc. Mom would not allow me to get a lot of the miniatures so I only had 2 of them. So after I've started working & earning my own $$, I've been buying online from ebay to fulfil my childhood collection.
Love the blue & green background, 2 of my favourite colours!

This was the other of my first 2 precious minis, apple dumplin. I will bring her along in my pocket wherever i went.
Carmen babe, ain't she a cutie?

A chess set outside the chess society office.
Took while waiting for J to finish his class on sunday.

I've recently acquired a external flash for my camera as the built-in flash cannot make it. Eager to try it at home.
J's fascinated with my big-ass camera & flash and he's willing to pose for me. But I must count 1,2,3 first..
This was taken without flash, natural lighting.

This was with flash bounced up the ceiling.. But bright enough to make J squirm his eyes..

So I tried again..

And again.. Arghh!!!

Then Roy said I don't count 1 2 3, catch him unexpected. It worked..!

For a while.. =_=
After the Hi-5 frenzy, he's back to sesame street again.. And will dig up all the stuffies to cuddle.

Ok, successful pic with eyes open. The lighting looked so natural. I love my flash!

Recovery

2011-08-19T11:48:00.004+08:00

J has lost about close to 1 kg during the recent bout of fever/flu/cough. My mum told me last time when I was young, I used to get very high fevers too. Maybe he followed me in this aspect. -_-

This was taken 2 weeks ago, during his 1st round of fever. As you know his eyes are not very big but everytime when he's sick, his double eyelids will appear for some strange reasons. So pretty. But really too bad they don't stay once he gets well. Of course, I'd rather he's healthy all the way, than pretty!

J has MIA from school for a week liao, and his teachers are so sweet, dropped by our place yesterday to see how is he. He gave them a big hug and suddenly became so well-behaved! He sit down beside them while they chatted with my mom.

A handmade card from his classmates in school. So sweet..

And toy cars too. Better than his birthday mann!
Ya, get well soon!

Bronchitis

2011-08-16T10:41:00.007+08:00

Sorry I've lagged in post.. Cos J has been down with fever & cough for the couple of weeks.

Initially he started puking for a couple of times about 2 weeks ago on a wednesday, 27th Jul. I thought he might have a stomach upset so we went to the PD in tampines to get a anti-vomit capsule to stuff into his anal to stop the puking. Well, it stopped the puking but he had a slight fever after that. Took a day off on thursday to look after him. But gradually he recovered over the weekend.

Then around last week, during the national day week, we brought him out couple of times cos we need to do some shopping, and went ikea too. Revamped the study room a bit.

At ion orchard. This boy insisted on taking the national flag everywhere we went. And that day happened to be National Day, so it's not too silly.

Then he had a fever again on wed night. I took a day off on thursday again.. sigh.. Initially my mom blamed me for feeding him too much of the orange cod-liver oil, resulting in phlegm in his throat. Then she said I shouldn't be bringing him out shopping cos he just recovered around 2 weeks ago. Then she said again why am I bringing him out for walks downstairs as it's the 7th month now. But the best part was that she said J cannot attend baby's full month celebration. =_=

I decided not to argue back, I think that's the best reply. I know she dotes on J but now is not the time to find someone to put the blame on. What matters now is to help J ease his discomfort. Every time J falls sick, I will groan in misery cos he is a difficult patient. He will be so cranky and whine the whole night. Ended up the adults suffer as well, as we'll be up all night tending to him, monitoring his temperature & sponging him.

His fever lasted for 3 days before the cough broke out on saturday. Roy asked me if we should bring J straight to KK. I thought thru a while, this will be our 3rd trip to KK, izzit too exaggerating? But after seeing J coughing his lungs out, I got a bit worried. What if it's asthma? The thought sent me packing up his stuff up right away. I didn't even have the mood to eat my dinner. The crowd is building up slowly. We guessed others came only after dinner. KK is still the best place to consult for kids as everything is available here. The doc took blood test & xray to find out what's wrong. J has some wheezing in the chest so the doc prescribe 2 medicine inhalers for him, to quickly open up his swelling airways . He's so scared of the mask being forced down over his nose & mouth that he struggled like hell. Need 4 of us to pin him down. Sweated so much till his hair's wet and he was so tramatised that he even puked a little. Really heartpain mann..

At the waiting area, at one corner, awaiting the test results.

As expected, we have to wait for quite a while before they call J's name. He was so tired that he dozed off in Roy's arms. There're bits of stickers on his hand cos the nurses stuck on him while he was thrashing away during the inhaling. So even when he slept, his fingers are still busy.

Ok, results out. Doc noticed some phlegm in his lungs, some swelling in the airways but not serious enough to be warded to drain the phlegm out. She advised that this is very common among toddlers less than 5 years old cos their airways are still narrow. I'll have to avoid bringing him to crowded places for the time being in case he caught the viral again and praying hard that this won't happen in future as he grows older. As for attending school, guess I have no control over that. Hopefully other parents are responsible enough not to bring their sick kids to school then!

I'm tired. =_=

Irrelevant post

2011-08-05T23:50:00.007+08:00

You know sometimes miscommunication can happen anytime, anywhere when you
least or never even expected. And it can happen to a new friend, mutual friend,
and even old friends.
And things that you've said out, you never thought how much it will affect another
person. I admitted that sometimes I've said a lot of harsh things to my closest friends,
that I've hurt their feelings. Maybe that's because we've known each other for so long
that complacency set it, we're just taking each other for granted. But somehow or rather,
we valued our friendships too much and not jeopardize it that we always managed to
thrash it out eventually. A sincere sorry to each other is always accepted at will.
We love each other too much & not to ignore one another. I wouldn't want to lose my
dearest friends for any silly reasons. This is what I called true friendship.
Sometimes I've said things which I think it's a fact to Roy too but I guess I've bruised
his vulnerable male ego. And instead of telling me straight, he decided to use
the silence treatment. And it's driving me crazy & I can't take it cos I still need to face
him each day leh.. Have to trash it out with him too, had a long & effectively talk to
make sure we don't have any hard feelings & we made up. Makes me realised sometimes
I just have to be careful with what I say to anybody. What you meant to be a joke might
hurt another's feelings. So I believe communication is very important in any relationship
be it love, friendship or work.

Prince

2011-07-26T12:11:00.003+08:00

They made a crown during class one day. Normally J doesn't like anything on his head *hee* but as he's watching commercials at that moment, I quickly chucked on his head for a pic.

He didn't notice it for a while..
Man, his face changed so much liao.. Scares me sometimes..

I missed his chubby cheeks, sigh..

Holding on to his precious ezlink card, even though we're at home.. -_-

Jared's 3th Birthday!

2011-07-20T10:19:00.024+08:00

J had his birthday party a week after Lauren's party, on last sunday. Actually J & L's birthday are only 2 days apart being L on the 13th & J on the 15th. A lot of birthdays in July!

Sometimes if I reached home early after work, I'll bring J down for a walk.. And when Roy can also knock off early, we will walk across the highway over to Giant megamall to meet him. J now wants to sit inside the trolley and will help guard the foodstuff. We're topping up drinks for the party & H2O for my sis to replenish her lost fluids.

And everywhere we go, J Must hold on to his ezlink card.. must be those normal blue card.. He think he is taking bus.. If you have any spare cards, please give me!

Got a tiny cake with a little mouse (since he's borned in the Rat year) on his actual birthday last friday, to let him blow the candle.

But he just cannot sit still and want to run away so Roy has to prop his leg against him to prevent him from escaping.. =_=

This boy doesn't want to sing the whole birthday song but only the last word.
And you can see him touching the cream & then smeared it on the table! *faint**

Sis couldn't come cos a few days after her chemo, her white blood cells drop drastically. Her immune system will be low so we don't wanna risk her getting any infections in crowded areas.

My nephew Cyan, now 18months old. He has a mohawk hairstyle, I think shaved by the parents..

J&J. They've grown so much, don't you think?

Huff & puff to carry the big prezzie..

Carmen forgotten they have to attend aunt's 60th birthday dinner but she & Andrew still swung by a while to celebrate for J. *hugzz**
Lauren stayed at home with helper as she's not feeling so well that day.

They got 2 prezzies for J.
And the boy's already so contented & happy just by stacking up the boxes.. Onzz, next time we'll just get nice boxes from Ikea can already..

It's a Thomas & Friends train set!

Andrew said it's for 3 year olds but assembling the set's for 30 year olds.. =_=III
I leave that to Roy to set up mann..

Andrew's spot on! J loves the train set! Thank you Aunty Carmen!

J is into Hi-5 this year so I ordered one just for him.. but that doesn't mean he don't like Elmo anymore.. Kids his age are so fickle-minded!

Close up of the customised carrot cake.

Getting excited after seeing his Hi-5 cake & trying to sing in mandarin, haha!

As usual, we got Roy's brother to stand with J cos his birthday is on the 18th so just nice, can sing the song to both of them.

A unglam pose of Piddles sticking up her leg.. :P

Putting down his precious ezlink card so that I can hold his hands to cut the cake.. Sheesh..

J & bro.

Jason + Shimei = JZ

Pa with his 2 grandsons.

The Loos..

Just very difficult for me to try to get a decent shot of them together, cannot sit up straight!

This is the best I can get, of them holding hands..

And in this pic, JZ is 9mths old, and J at 7mths at the same position. :D
They're sooo chubby & cute at that age right?! Awwww~

BFF forever!

Whenever we asked J for a kiss, he will stretch out his face for us to kiss him. But this time round, Roy forced his face over instead.

Unwrapping the prezzie that Lily got for him. She's just so sweet, every year will remember J's birthday. *hugzz*

It's a fisherprice doodle board!

J wasted no time in chopping shapes on the board. Thanks Aunty Lily!
Now that he's slimmer, including the face.. You can see his dimples now, thanks goodness they're still there.. :P

So other than all the lovely prezzies, there're big angpows from J's grandfolks, jiu jiu, yee yee, godpa & aunt Yoyo. All going into his education account.

ps: Jared, you are a very lucky boy & everybody still loves you even though you are constantly testing your mummy's patience. You must remember my dear ones when you're older next time, ok?

~~Happy Birthday J Boy, we love you very much~~

Lauren's 1st Birthday!

2011-07-18T15:31:00.023+08:00

Time really really whizzed by so fast, before I know it, Lauren's already turning 1! I still remembered very clearly all the correspondences I had with Carmen when she's still expecting Lauren giving her lotsa support & advices, and visiting her when she delivered Lauren at KKH.

The kids are growing up so fast & furious, and so are we, getting older by the years! Arghh!

Getting ready at home on a saturday early afternoon, after his yahama class. All hot & sweaty already.. =_=III

A happy Strawberry Shortcake poster greeted us cheerfully at the entrance of the function room. She used to be my favourite childhood character too! But nowadays SSC look so different from the ones in the eighties..

We're the first few to reach so had plenty of time to noose around taking pics.. Main focus was of course the Melia family.

And before the crowd comes in, I must take a picture with my god-daughter! *happy**

And on Carmen's right is her Godmother as well.. And I noticed Carmen serving her food & drinks. So I was telling Carmen that next time when I grow old, Lauren can serve me food as well.. Lol..

A lot of time & effort put in by Carmen & Andrew to make it all happened. Good job!

I especially love the flowers, so cheerful!

This is my favourite shot!

Well, this too... :)

Lauren at 5 months old, during Christmas. So chubby then!

I'm a sucker for details..

She's quite sleepy so Carmen took her out for a quick nap.

We looked like the number 10.

Finally! J can wear the Osh Kosh that Yong bought for him. That time when she came back from seattle for holidays, J's only 14 months old!

And now.. he's 36 months old.. really fast & naughty!

And he's so restless, cannot just sit quietly on the chair.. Roy has to bring him out for a walk.. I have be "professional" and take pictures, thanks dee!

Playing hide & seek..

Both Roy & my eyes are big what, how come J's so small? I swear I didn't laugh at people when I was preggy.. -_-

Lauren's favourite fruit is strawberry, just like the Strawberry Shortcake theme party.

Since Carmen & Lauren's birthday is only 3 days apart, they decided to hold a double celebration with 2 cakes.

Lauren's cake was of course her favourite Strawberry Shortcake character.

While Carmen's durian cake is the character called Apple Dumplin'. They all used to be my childhood toys..

Family pic before cake cutting.

Happy Birthday to my dearest Carmen & Lauren!

Yeah!

I'm surprised J let me put on the party hat on him.

Only for a short while mann..

Lauren is officially 1 year old! *proud**

Hope the kids will grow up together happy & healthy!

Looking forward to a trip together soon, hopefully to Manchester next year. *Roy praying very hard**

Nitez Out

2011-07-14T11:03:00.012+08:00

It's been some time since I had dinner with the rest. Gave OB a belated birthday treat as he's been busy during his bd week. As we're trying to save time, dinner was at boss SHock's place at the downstairs kopitiam zhi char store. I want to eat crab but they don't have that day. What a damper!

But the company mattered more than the dinner.. We were all passing around the dishes to scoop out for each other, really feel like family. :)

Got a tiny cake for OB, just enough for him to make a wish & blow out the candle. Even though he kept saying he don't need birthday song & stuff but I know he's secretly very happy one!

As OB is having flu, Daniel tried to help Yoyo put on the mask or he's just trying to be funny, LOL..
OB's gathering his favourite combination of tiles again before I snap a pic..

Haha!

SHock decided to place 3 of "Hong Zhong" together cos they looked better, and smiling goofy-ly away..

Strike 3!

My turn to take with the birthday boy!

Cannot find ultraman, so spidey will do the job.

Managed to coax OB to pose a peace sign for me, I'm so good!
But he really looks better when he smiles right? Looks very approachable, haha!

Balancing my cammie precariously on the tv top. Yeah!

OB is a lucky man, at that moment!

We settled down for MJ after all the joking and fooling around while the rest played cards & watching indian movie..

Danny & Yoyo lazing on the sofa while I went around taking pics.. I took a break from MJ cos I was losing and asked SHock to recoup the losses for me. But I still lost cos I've lost stamina during round 2. Where is Roy when I need him?? Oh, he has to work OT. I can't complain for the sake of money.. @_@

1st session

2011-07-12T17:01:00.006+08:00

Sis went for the chemotherapy yesterday. 1 round consist of 6 sessions. Each session after chemo will need to rest up to 3-4 weeks depending on her physique, to get well for the next session. She is quite frail in that matter. She needs 2 booster jabs instead of the normal 1 jab for the treatment.

I know she's trembling with fear a few days before that. Worry about the side effects specially the nausea & hair loss etc. What I can do at that point is to keep assuring her that everything's gonna be alright.. sigh..

I rushed home after work to see how is she. I saw there're 2 plasters on her chest, 1 left, 1 right. The right one was turning blue black. The doctor in charge couldn't locate the veins to inject the needle for the drug to enter the bloodstream as they're so fine that he accidentally punctured a tiny hole into her lung! What a fucked up doc! How to sue him! I hope there's no harm done! No choice had to inject the drug on the spot above her left chest where it's still recovering from the operation.

She's now carrying a little pouch at her waist, inside a little machine with tube attached straight to her chest that will inject the medicine into the veins, bit by bit over a span of 3 days.
J saw the plasters and kept wanting to touch or press them. I'm so worried he might accidentally pull tube or something. Had to keep pulling him away or reminding him not to go near her. He just don't understand why I keep doing tat..

The side effect of nausea kicked in today. She just keep feeling unbearable discomfort and keep tearing.. It just pains me to see her walking ever so slow and all hunched up. She don't even have much strength to cough cos it was so uncomfortable and painful. We all tried not to fuss over her & act as normal as we can.

I really don't know how to make her feel better except to give her words of encouragement and distractions. She worries all her hair will fall out, including eyebrows, lashes & other parts. And also her nails.. Cos the medicine will coarse through every part of the veins, to kill off the cancer cells but at the same time, even the white & red blood cells too.

I said 1 down, 5 more to go.. Look forward to complete the sessions, achieve the target & don't look back. Determination & perseverance will pull you through, don't worry or think about anything else for now. Maybe my sis must be thinking, so easy for me to say.. But this is what I can think of right now..

I'm not trying to dampen everybody's mood here by saying how miserable I feel by describing my sister's current situation. There's a reason why I decided to block my blog from the public so that I can have a outlet. A outlet of my feelings. This is my blog, I should be able to write whether I'm happy or sad or frustrated or depressed. I know my sister might feel uneasy reading my outburst, so I've never offer her to read my posts. Maybe when she's completed all her sessions, she might be ready to read them. Too bad I can't put password for just 1 post.. I'll just have to show her pictures of Jared on my computer liao..

I've uploaded other pictures, will get down to them right away..

Never seen before footage

2011-07-11T10:03:00.004+08:00

I've always shown you clips and pictures of J when he's happy or when he's laughing away..

So as promised, here's a clip of when he's throwing tantrums and rolling on the floor, haha!

He's not as angelic as you think he is!

Hear him whine!

Gifts from overseas

2011-07-01T11:28:00.006+08:00

I got a lot of gifts on monday, felt like Christmas for a while.

When I knew Lily's niece is travelling to seoul, I asked her if she could help me get their spoons. Lily looked at me with her eyes wide open & asked why spoons? Cos I like that their handle is long.. Easy for me to scoop stuff without stretching

These 3D glasses are cheap around HK$6, so William bought quite a number to give out to us since 3D movies are in nowadays.

Ok, this wallet is not a gift. OB went London/Paris for holidays so I asked him to help my mum get a long wallet. She wants to keep her notes straight & crease-free.

Told him not to get anything from there cos everything is ex, specially in Paris. But OB still remembered to get some Harrods cookies and sweets from disneyland for J. Well, I don't allow J to eat the sweets in case he gets active, instead he's stacking the little candy containers up. He thinks they're toys bah.

Irrelevant post

2011-06-30T12:26:00.006+08:00

I'm just feeling very unhappy these few days.. People who know me, they know that I do not like to be dictate on what I should and should not do, irregardless. So unless, it's work related, please don't judge me on what I do. I know I might be wrong in some ways, and that will result in a lot of misunderstandings. If I've know it actually created so much unhappiness, I shouldn't even start in the first place, my mistake. Then don't read it. Anyway, I'll blocked from public readers, problem solved. I shouldn't have released the previous time I blocked it.

I know it's a feeling which I will never understand but it's really not easy for me either. Life is never easy to begin with. It's not the end of the world, instead of wallowing in sorrow & self pity & asking why is this happening, why not just come out of it & face it. It might be better for everybody this way. But then again, what do I know. Easier said than done. Must be thinking, I can say all I want, it doesn't happen to me.. But I'm really feeling it, really.. Why don't tell me what I must do it make it better then. I will try to be as understanding and discreet as possible. It will not be me but I will do it.

Yoyo's Big Day

2011-06-27T22:57:00.047+08:00

I was pretty excited and waiting so long for this day to arrive. And I was thick skinned enough to offer my services to be the 2nd shooter. Sounds pro huh..

But as this was my first time taking pictures on a big scale, I have to say I'm not well prepped cos I don't have a external flash to begin with. No flash means half of my pictures will turn out blur which they did! Oh well, I attempted to take as many as I could and I'm glad I've managed to captured some intimate moments.

A lot of pictures, happy! And I don't bother to check my grammars, too lazy.. Who cares?

I also couldn't sleep the whole night, toss & turn & keep checking the clock to see if it's time to wake up.. I'm so afraid that I might oversleep and miss the morning session!
Booked a cab & I was there at 0430hrs, even I surprised myself.. Haa..
Said a quick hi to Yoyo and I roamed around to look for subjects. A lot of details around the house so I just snapped & snapped.

Yoyo's 2 cousins were her personal assistants and I can see just how close they were..
But of course I'm close to her too, helped her to zip up her tight gown the 2nd time round.. *childish**

It helps that Yoyo is pretty to begin with so snapping her was a breeze cos I don't have to try to hard. Love capturing all her little actions & quirky moves, just cute!
When her folks put the veil over her, the feeling of contentment overwhelmed me. Mr & Mrs Eng's little girl is all grown up now! :)

This was my best angle shot of her, I love it to bits! My masterpiece!

I only managed to take picture of her engagement ring as the wedding bands were nicely tied up securely in their box. Next time perhaps!

Her train was super long and we had to be mindful not to step nor trip on it. :P

The Enggies. Her brother very cute, remembering to put on his coat for picture taking as he don't wanna look too sloppy. :P

I'm just super happy & honoured when I asked Yoyo if I could hide in the room with her while the boys were outside attempting to break the gates down. Also to keep her company lah.. Asking how she's feeling & stuff, girl talk you know.. And I want to be the one to capture Thomas's reaction when he opened the door with his goofy smile. Priceless.

The brothers & sisters are just damn sporting lah! *clap**

Mrs Eng is one Happy Mommy that day, you can just see the sparkles in her eyes..

Yoyo is very accomodating & will obliged me with whatever poses I've asked of her, so kwai.. :)

I think I kept asking & suggesting to them who I wanna take etc.. more than what the actual photographer.. Paiseh..

And a picture of Thomas & his mother-in-law is a MUST of course. Hee..

Yoyo has very nice side profile & a lot of hair, I like!

The sisters were holding on to their wooden clogs everywhere too..

My pictures turned out much better under natural lightings. Every picture turned out nice, I love the different tones of light, yeah!
Love the Beemer too!

Peaceful feel at the temple, even though I was sweating buckets. I can imagine how the groom & bride feel under their coat & gown too, hot is the word.

Even the brothers & sisters were gamed to pose for me. *shy**

Uncle T has to stand at the side while the sisters had their turn..

On the way to Four Seasons Hotel in Orchard Road, everybody's just so relieved to get in the cars & out of the heat.

They had the tea ceremony for the groom's side at the hotel suite.

Yoyo's closest cousins, and with rollers in their hair.. Lol..

One of the brothers, Don is very funny. He made the rest do lotsa stunts & poses & instructed the photographer to take more photos. Must make the $$ worth paying I guess.
I would have done the same if he asked me, he's so fierce with his tattoo welding leg.

A change of attire, a sleek cheongsam. Got the Shanghai Tang feel.

The bareback look is so sexy! Yoyo's niece is so cute!

Yoyo's side of the family are huge and everybody turned up in full force, including relatives from m'sia & perth. So nice of them.
I bet Uncle T & Yoyo were tired from all the tea offering cos so many of the elders..

Housekeeping had champagne, chocolate & strawberries for the happy couple & nobody dared to touch them. They looked soooo appetising.. *mouthwatering**

I love to take all the details cos I know a lot of time & efforts have been put in to make it happen.

Everybody in the room has a part to play that day, and I'm glad I went there earlier to catch that moment.

Feels like home? :)
I bet they've to pack up like siao when checking out time.

All ready! I felt a moment of serene when she stepped out of the room..
I dunno, i had a lot of different feelings on that day.. Just super happy that Yoyo has finally found her happiness, she so deserve it!

I looked so pale & plain next to the lovely bride but then, that's the whole idea! Haa..

More wedding details. My card gown's not opened up, not sure why?
Handmade bears from OB and they're ex.. :P

Penning down our warmest wishes for Uncle T & Yoyo..

Uncle T looking at his bride with so much love.
A better picture of Yoyo's cousin & niece from Perth.
I've cut back on photo taking cos really cannot make it indoors w/o a external flash. Well, never mind cos I also wanna enjoy eating my dinner. Hee..

And her daddy is so handsome, like a movie star! But I was too shy to ask them to pose for me.. Haa.. N mind, shall ask Yoyo for some pictures then.. *smitten**

I like the idea of the bride mingling with guests during reception. Lotsa opportunity to take pictures! Everybody's happy.

Roy drove me earlier to the hotel while he went klkk.. So sweet of him..

I like it that the sport lights are shone directly in the middle of every table & make the cutlery & display so stand out.
I was already a bit tired by the time I sit down, so I didn't move around much to take anymore photos.. Ya, I worked part-time that day only.

I asked the server for some cut chilli padi, and he came back with this bigger than the usual saucer of chilli! All of us at the table just stared at the mountain of chilli & wondering how to finish. Then Danny said so wasteful & asked me to tabao back, they ate up the chocolates & left the boxes for me to pack. Have to do it very discreetly mann.. =_=

Danny & Hara laughing away at Mathavan's joke during the yum seng session. Yup, it's funny..

Carmen was feeling bored so she came over to join us for the 2nd half.. Even though we've been in close contact but there's still so much to catch up!

And I managed to struggled over to take a shot of Yoyo in her blue gown, and she turned to smile for me. Haa, like a movie star..
Overall, it was a simple & fuss-free wedding, just the way they like it. I really enjoyed the experience tremendously with my close friends around.
Looking forward to Jacq, Lindy & Gerri's weddings in future liao.. Haa..

After our congrats, hugs & goodbyes to the happy yet tired couple, we saw this corner with nice sofas around. So I said we must take a group photo and of course I must be in it! So I asked Roy to use my baby to take.. We're not ready yet and he snapped liao..

Ok, everybody is ready. Nice shot! And we look glam..

Then I said we must take picture at the stairway, so the troop followed.. We're so noisy as usual.
Without flash so lousy..

With flash is much better but we look so white, at least can see Danny & Mat more clearly. Everybody's so happy at that point of time.

We asked Mat to move to the side cos he's blocking everybody! Haa..

This day will always be special in my heart.

A part of you

2011-06-27T10:41:00.007+08:00

It's not easy when you know a part of you has to be removed in order for survival. But it has to be done, there's no other choice.

My sister went for the operation to remove the lump & affected lymph nodes last wednesday. During the op, the surgeon straight away noticed that the cancer has affected the breast area so on the spot had do the mastectomy. Her wound was painful & unbearable, and she had a number of painkillers that made her disorientated & nauseous.

We're on the way to visit her at Mt. Elizabeth. Nostalgia for me cos this was where I had given birth to Jared 3 years ago. So fast hor.. I've carried J in my arms last time out from the maternity ward and now, he's up & running about along the corridors.

And he only wanted to hold onto Ah ma's hands, not sure why.. But it's ok, gave me a break.

This boy very funny, he can dash around in shopping malls refusing to hold our hands but places like parks, unfamiliar places or even hospitals, he refuses to let go.. Maybe he has phobia of hospitals cos he was admitted to KK last oct due to constipation.

Sis sitting up in a crouch and taking dinner. Just pain to see her moving ever so slowly & carefully. I've asked J not to hug or touch her just in case. He can be very rough sometimes..

J is contented by roaming around the room checking things out.

All the hampers & gifts. We've to help bring some back too, cos it's be a handful for them. Help to finish up the fruits too..

And so, tissues from the lump & lymph nodes are sent for analysis and my sis meet up with the specialist today. The results were out partially cos the histologist needs more time to study the lymph node. The stage is 2B and the groth is about 5cm. The rate of growth is moderate, the commonest rate. But in order not to let the cancer cells recur, she will need chemotherapy. And maybe later on radiotherapy on the left breast. The initial process will be difficult but she will have to go through it. I know she's scared stiff about the chemo but she just have to tell herself to brave through the process in order to get well.

My peeps have been most supportive & concern for my sis and told me not to worry too much. We take one step at a time, no point worrying about tomorrow when today has enough worries of it's own - quote from bible. Thanks babe!